Army Briefs Parliamentary Defence Panel On Surgical Strikes  

New Delhi: Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence was briefed on Friday about the September 29 surgical strikes conducted by the Indian Army on terror launching pads across the Line of Control, official sources said. Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Bipin Rawat, briefed the Panel members for around half an hour, said a member and added that the information provided is already in the public domain.

The members did not ask any questions after the briefing, the source added. The briefing came after complaints from the Congress Party on Thursday night that the committee meeting agenda was changed at the last moment and the briefing on the surgical strikes was cancelled. The source said the issue was also raised at the meeting's beginning by Congress members, but committee Chairman Major General BC Khanduri (retd) said it might have been a 'miscommunication.'

When members said they had written to him on the issue as well, the chairman said he did not receive the letter, and it appeared to have reached the media before him. Surgical strikes on September 28-29 night on terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Pakistan-administered Kashmir further escalated tensions between the two countries. The strikes came following a terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, killing 19 soldiers.

The Parliamentary Panel was to be briefed about the strike on Friday, as planned. However, as per the agenda uploaded on the Lok Sabha's website, the committee was to discuss the status of implementation of e-postal ballot system. This prompted protests from the Congress, and its two MPs on the panel, Ambika Soni and Madhusudan Mistry, said the last-minute change of agenda was 'highly unacceptable.'

Source: IANS